The heart of the Miners: 24-year-old Justin Ferrarella promoted to General Manager

FRANKFORD -- Nobody was happier than Justin Ferrarella that the Miners made the playoffs this year.

Don't bother to check your program -- he's not there. He's not in the dugout, he doesn't wear a uniform, he doesn't hit, he doesn't pitch.

But, could the Miners have made it to the playoffs without him? We'll never know, but he definitely helped.

He is part-time businessman, full-time baseball junkie, sometimes adviser, often a listener with a sympathetic ear, occasionally a spokesman with a clever quip.

Officially speaking, he is the "operations manager" at Skylands Stadium.

At least, he was the operations manager.

As of last week, he has a new title: general manager.

Always smiling, Ferrarella always made it clear that he loved his unique twofold position, which involved both the running of the ballpark and dealing with the coaches and players on behalf of his uncle, Al Dorso, who owns both the stadium and the team.

"To say I love baseball would be a huge understatement," Ferarella said.

The 24-year-old makes an even bolder statement than that:

"Baseball saved my life," he said.

The story began when he was injured playing outfield for the Wayne Hills High School baseball team in 2011. That's what sent him to a doctor. And that's where he learned he had cancer.

"It was the day after graduation," he said. "It was not exactly a great graduation gift."

He had surgery on July 1, telling everybody he would be out of the hospital in time to help out, as always, at his uncle's annual State Fair Meadowlands. And, he was.

"When I first said I'd be there, everybody laughed at me and said I was crazy," he recalled. "Well," he adds with a grin, "I guess I was crazy, but I was there."

The fact that it was testicular cancer that he had posed one specific side issue.

"The biggest problem was that I have two older brothers and they wouldn't stop telling jokes and making fun of me and it really hurt when I laughed," he said. "You can only imagine the humor opportunities for brothers in that situation."

Three months later, Ferrarella headed off , as planned, to Coastal Carolina University, where he graduated in the spring of 2015 -- just in time to work as a jack-of-all-trades for his uncle's brand new baseball team in the Canadian-American League.

In his stadium duties, he was seen roaming the stands, walkie-talkie in hand, fixing a broken seat here, a malfunctioning cash register there.

On the field, he often had a shovel in his hands to work on the infield.

In the front office, he was a part of just about everything going on.

By this year, he was also representing his uncle in dealings with the players.

"He was the bridge between the owner and the players," said manager Bobby Jones.

"He was very involved. He was young, but he didn't talk young and he didn't act young. He earned my respect and the respect of every guy in that clubhouse."

In fact, Jones and Ferrarella began having long phone conversations almost every day of the season.

"We would talk for an hour a lot of times," Ferrarella said. "Mostly, it was about baseball, but, really, we talked about everything."

Jones, a former major-leaguer, agreed.

"We talked about life, we talked about our lives," Jones said.

"We talked about our experiences and how some of them were different, but some of them were the same."

Jones would often talk to Ferrarella during his hour-plus drive from his longtime home in Montclair. They would talk at night, too, and on weekends and days off.

"He's a good listener," Jones said. "He also loves baseball and so do I, so, no matter what else, we always had that to fall back on."

As for the new GM's Uncle Al, Ferrarella said that Dorso is demanding on the job, but never talks about work during family picnics and other family events.

And, if anybody thinks the job was handed to Ferrarella just because of family, Dorso would be quick to set them straight.

"I'm not that nice a guy," Dorso said. "I did give him a chance right out of college, but everything he's gotten since then, he's earned.

"I have total faith and confidence in him. He's proven himself over these three years. I don't think he can do the job, I know he can do it."

The final word, though, comes from Jones.

"Justin is very smart," he said. "I would not be surprised to see him as a GM in the major leagues some day."

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